Australia
Nullarbor Plain
A treeless plain ending in sheer cliffs that drop into the Southern Ocean to the horizon.
The Eyre Highway holds a famously long straight as the treeless plain stretches towards a nearly empty horizon. South of the road, immense limestone cliffs meet the Southern Ocean and turn the crossing into more than a feat of distance.
The Nullarbor crosses an immense limestone plateau between South Australia and Western Australia. The Eyre Highway includes the long '90 Mile Straight', while widely spaced roadhouses make fuel, water and fatigue planning fundamental. Along designated coastal viewpoints, the Bunda Cliffs meet the Southern Ocean; travellers must remain inside barriers and away from unstable edges, with seasonal whales possible rather than promised.
Solo
A long, self-reliant crossing suits an experienced driver who plans fuel, fatigue, communications and safe cliff viewpoints.
Friends
A prepared convoy can divide the wheel time and roadhouse stops before viewing the Bunda Cliffs from designated safe areas.
- Treeless limestone country extends for hundreds of kilometres across the interstate crossing.
- The 90 Mile Straight creates a famously sustained section of highway without replacing fatigue breaks.
- Designated Bunda Cliffs viewpoints reveal the limestone edge above the Southern Ocean safely.
- Widely spaced roadhouses make fuel, water, communications and driver rotation part of the experience.
Ceduna at the crossing's eastern gate wears the crown of Australia's oyster capital; Denial Bay's first leases date from 1985.
Across the treeless middle the roadhouse is the only kitchen, on a road whose longest dead-straight stretch runs 146 kilometres.
Barreal
Argentina
A dried lakebed so flat and white it doubles as a land-sailing course beneath the Andes.
Chapada dos Veadeiros
Brazil
One trail crosses rock older than Pangaea, through abandoned crystal diggings, to a 120-metre fall.
Campo Imperatore
Italy
A vast high plateau called Italy's Little Tibet, barren, wind-scoured, impossibly empty.
Rum
Scotland
A volcanic island where a shuttered Edwardian castle guards its orchestrion and faded excess.
West MacDonnell Ranges
Australia
Cold water hides beneath ochre gorge walls along Tjoritja's long desert spine.
Walls of Jerusalem
Australia
A steep climb opens onto glacial tarns and pencil-pine groves in Tasmania's high country.
Mitchell Falls
Australia
In season, four tiers of water thunder through sandstone on remote Wunambal Gaambera Country.
Karijini National Park
Australia
Red-and-black iron bands plunge towards cold pools inside narrow Pilbara chasms.